Editor's Foreword

ordered, and there is currently no contract for the four
land-attack variants. (It may be that Italy will follow
in the footsteps of France, which, due to budgetary
restrictions, has already had to entirely eliminate the
land-attack model from its programme.) Other major
surface-combatant requirements looming in the
future include a successor to Italy’s fleet of 12 mine-
countermeasures vessels, a double-hulled replacement
for the ageing Stromboli class of replenishment
tankers and a new LHD-type vessel to replace
the San Giorgio class of amphibious-assault ships.
Without a rebalancing of the defence budget to
reduce personnel costs and increase investment
funds there are likely to be casualties in the procurement
plans of all three services.
In June 2009, Denmark released a new fiveyear
defence plan covering the period 2010–14.
During the previous five years, the armed forces
had received an average of DKR21.5bn (US$4.3bn)
a year, and this will rise to an average of just over
DKR22bn (US$4.4bn) a year, around half the amount
requested by the Ministry of Defence. Each year the
budget will include DKR140m (US$27.8m) to create
a secure computer network-operations capacity, a
maximum of DKR1bn (US$198m) for participation
in international missions, and around DKR400m
(US$79m) for ‘one-off expenditures’. Over the next
five years, the armed forces will become smaller
but stronger with the goal of being able to deploy
2,000 personnel on operations outside the country,
though with pressure on the budget there will be a
number of cutbacks. Among the reductions will be
a cut in the number of operational Leopard 2 main
battle tanks to 34, and in the number of F-16 aircraft
from 48 to 30. The army will decommission its longrange
fire-support system of M109 howitzers and
cut its long-range anti-tank missile units. The navy
will cut its number of maritime-response ships for
permanent surveillance of Danish waters from four
to three and reduce the air force’s Fennec helicopter
personnel and equipment, ending the international
capability of that fleet. In terms of new equipment,
the biggest project will be the future fighter to
replace the current fleet of F-16s, while the Danish
army will receive new armoured vehicles, communications
equipment and personnel-protection
suites for infantry troops. The navy is scheduled to
take delivery of new maritime helicopters, weapons
systems, small vessels and auxiliary ships.
Several countries in Eastern Europe that had
boosted military spending in the run-up to joining
naTO Europe
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NATO have already indicated that their economic
problems will reverse this trend, opening up the
likelihood of greater defence cooperation between
them in order to eke out any available economies
of scale. Lithuania cut its 2009 budget by 9% and
then by a further 36% in 2010. As a result of such
dramatic cuts the Ministry of Defence has been
forced to cancel its plan to reintroduce national military
conscription (resurrected in reaction to the 2008
Russia–Georgia war); withdraw forces from overseas
missions such as Kosovo; impose salary reductions
for officers; cut training schedules; and defer
payments, though some procurement programmes
have been unaffected. Programmes that will still
proceed include the delivery of a final C-27J transporter,
a third StanFlex 300 patrol ship, two ex-Royal
Navy minehunters, off-road trucks and rifles.
However, as funding for these items will wipe out
the chance of any further purchases in the medium
term, Lithuania has stepped up its consultations
with its Baltic neighbours and Poland in an effort to
pool resources for joint procurements to drive down
operating costs.
In Latvia, the government was forced to approach
the IMF for emergency financing in return for implementing
an austerity budget. The reduction in state
spending resulted in a 21% cut in the 2009 defence
budget and a temporary pause in the 12-year, longterm
defence plan implemented in 2001, designed
to produce a professional, highly competent
force providing niche capabilities in the areas of
medical response, military police and engineering
support. In order to continue with its commitment
in Afghanistan, Latvia will end its participation in
NATO- and EU-led military missions in Kosovo and
Bosnia-Herzegovina. Likewise, despite events in
Georgia and a series of Russian cyber attacks on the
government’s computer network, Estonia has also
been forced to cut its defence budget with resulting
cuts in both salaries and procurement.
Having only just approved a new four-year
armed-forces development for 2009–12 and a
longer-term z60bn (US$20.8bn) investment plan
to run to 2018, the economic crisis resulted in the
Polish government cutting the 2009 budget from
z24.5bn (US$8.5bn) to z22.6bn (US$8bn). This meant
that even though there is a statutory commitment to
hold spending at 1.95% of GDP, it fell to 1.85% of
GDP in 2009. As a result of the move, the Ministry
of Defence scrapped the planned acquisition of two
multirole tanker transports, reduced its purchase
Europe (naTO)